I’ve been inhaling books lately, it seems. A lot of that has to do with the insomnia thing. In the past two weeks I’ve read The Wyrd of Willowmere by Alison Baird (that was pretty much overnight), Septimus Heap: Magyk by Angie Sage (the basic story is fine, but it has the irritating idiosyncracy of capitalising spell names and setting them in boldface, argh), An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears (which was far and away better than A Dream of Scipio, probably due to the separation of narratives instead of interweaving them the way Scipio did), Four Seasons of Mojo by Stephanie Bird, Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King (also pretty much overnight, and Mousme was right, poor Russell), reread Travels With My Cello by Julian Lloyd Webber, and tore through The Serpent on the Crown by Elizabeth Peters (also pretty much overnight).
The result of this binge is that my stack of books to read has been brutally decimated. I’m down to a YA book that I put down half-read a couple of months ago (yawn) and a Dave Duncan book Ceri lent to me a while back. But there’s a new Jim Butcher out in paperback that I can pick up this week (Harry Dresden, yay!), and I should have a couple of non-fic research books arriving soon as well.
I could do you up a printed copy of Squirrelman – Sins of the Past if you wanted… It’ll be done in six weeks.
Have you read the Heaven Tree trilogy by Edith Pargetar? Paze has the first one, and the second and third are available from Westmount Library (I can get them for you.) They tell a quite riveting tale of a young man named Harry who seems to be born about 300 yrs too early. He’s very sensitive to injustice and cruelty, and in the 15th century this isn’t going to make for an easy existence. He is also an artist–a talented sculptor who works on a gothic cathedral for most of his life, carving his friends and family into the woodwork there. The secondary characters are very vividly drawn and make you want to read more to find out what will happen to them.
E. Pargeter also writes, under a psuedonym, the Brother Caedfal books, but they are quite different in style and format. She is an excellent writer, ‘weaving a rich medieval tapestry’ (as people say in jacket notes.)
HRH seems to have forgotten your books over at Jan and t!’s (the ones you lent me that I’ve finished reading), so I shall send myself a reminder at work to remember to bring them at band practice this Saturday.
Poor Russel. She broke my heart in this one. My favourite is still “The Moor,” followed very closely by “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.”
I simply adore the Amelia Peabody mysteries. I slowed down my reading consumption considerably after last Thursday, due to social commitments, so I’m only about halfway through the second one, but it is absolute genius. I love the fact that she specifically purchased a parasol solid enough that she could hit people with it.
The Jane Austen mysteries are pretty awesome as well.
Oh, yes, I had a point. If you’d like to borrow some books from me, I’ll be happy to lend them to you. I have a little over half the Cadfael books (written by Edith Pargeter under the pseudonym Ellis Peters) which are a fun if lamentably short read. I have some darker and grittier mysteries as well, if you’re interested. Sadly, I don’t think my collection of sci fi and fantasy even comes close to rivalling yours, so I doubt there’s anything there that you haven’t already read.
I have almost all of Bernard Cornwell’s historical fiction, should you be interested. I’m missing one of the Sharpe novels (Sharpe’s Trafalgar), and the latest trilogy which is only out in trade paperback. Thus, I shall be waiting before purchasing it. $20 for that? Sheesh.
Anyway, i miei libri sono i tuoi libri. :)